The government on Wednesday moved Ashwani Lohani, hailed as a turnaround specialist, from the now operationally profitable Air India to the Railway Board as its chairman, while giving interim charge of the national carrier to senior IAS officer Rajiv Bansal.

Mr Lohani replaces A K Mital at Railway Board at a time when the country’s largest transporter has faced two back-to-back derailments, including one where more than 20 passengers died, and for which Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu took “full moral responsibility”.

While Mr Lohani has been associated with railways in the past, his successor at Air India Mr Bansal also spent nearly two years at the civil aviation ministry between 2006 and 2008. Mr Lohani would be taking over as Railway Board Chairman today.
Mr Bansal has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India for three months.

Presently, he is additional secretary and financial adviser at the petroleum ministry.

A senior civil aviation ministry official said that Mr Bansal has been appointed as Air India CMD for three months. Bansal is from the Nagaland cadre of 1988 batch and hails from Haryana.

He is taking over as Air India CMD at a time when the government is working on the modalities for the disinvestment of the loss-making national carrier.